Long before Connor McDavid’s biggest moments, Sidney Crosby knew

Sidney Crosby is legendary for a lot of issues, one among which is his availability and endurance with the sometimes-obnoxious media.

For years and years, I’d see Crosby patiently sit at his locker and take in questions. One taste of those questions was extra predictable and constant than the remainder. Each time the Penguins confronted a participant who had been drafted No. 1, simply as Crosby had been in 2005, Crosby can be requested about comparisons to and opinions of the most recent hotshot to enter the league.

Patrick Kane. Steven Stamkos. John Tavares. Taylor Corridor. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Nail Yakupov (bear in mind him?).

Crosby was unanimously the most effective participant on the earth on the time however would nonetheless be gracious and glowing in regards to the draft picks. He wouldn’t bristle — that wouldn’t be his method. However there was a slight sense that Crosby didn’t actually just like the questions. He’s one of many least egotistical superstars within the historical past of the game, however to be that nice, you continue to want an ego. He knew he was higher than these gamers, though he revered them vastly. He knew he wore the crown.

Within the fall of 2012, Crosby knew full effectively who his successor can be.

That yr, the NHL was embroiled in one among its periodic work stoppages, this one a lockout.

Gamers have been allowed at apply services, however group officers weren’t. Crosby took on the position of media relations director. A day upfront, he’d inform the media what time Penguins gamers — often round a dozen — can be figuring out. One time, in a very endearing second, gamers canceled the following day’s exercise. So, Crosby known as me and requested me to inform the remainder of the media to not present up. It was a really unusual time for hockey and particularly for Crosby, who had simply misplaced 100 video games in his prime as a result of a concussion. Now, he was lacking extra time in his prime due to a lockout.

Additionally due to the lockout, Crosby had loads of time for introspection alongside together with his hockey participant and media relations duties. He had time to pay shut consideration to the remainder of the hockey world, too, a privilege he usually isn’t afforded in October.

Two hours north of Pittsburgh, a 15-year-old sensation had arrived in Erie, Pa. — Connor McDavid was taking the Ontario Hockey League by storm. I had determined to journey to Erie with Penguins broadcaster Paul Steigerwald on Saturday, the evening of McDavid’s second dwelling recreation, when the Erie Otters have been taking up the London Knights.

On the sport’s first shift, McDavid break up defensemen Olli Määttä and Scott Harrington after which scored to complete off a spotlight reel objective.

Dan Bylsma, then teaching the Penguins, was there. Following the sport, he chewed out Määttä and Harrington, a few Penguins draft picks, for permitting that objective on the sport’s first shift. After seeing the interplay, I joked to Bylsma, one thing alongside the traces of, “I don’t know, that McDavid child is kinda good.”

Bylsma checked out me and mentioned: “He’s 15. They shouldn’t be getting break up like that.”

I relayed this story to Crosby, who requested if Bylsma actually mentioned that. Then he took my facet.

“Doesn’t matter how previous he’s. He’s completely different,” Crosby mentioned.

Oh?

Crosby all the time politely solutions questions on gamers, however he doesn’t usually exit of his method like that.

Then it occurred to me that Erie Otters video games aren’t televised in Pittsburgh. I had assumed that Crosby had by no means seen McDavid play.

“Acquired a while on my palms today,” Crosby mentioned with a smile. “I’ve seen him. I’ve seen highlights of him.”

The best participant on the earth is testing YouTube highlights of a 15-year-old hockey participant?

“Yep,” Crosby mentioned.

Then he mentioned one thing I’ll always remember. Sensing that he noticed one thing in McDavid that was completely different, I requested him if McDavid reminded him of anybody. In a non-arrogant method, Crosby quietly mentioned, “He jogs my memory of me.”

Make no mistake, he admired all the gamers who have been in comparison with him. He as soon as informed me that, if he might shoot the puck like Alex Ovechkin, he wouldn’t move as a lot as he does. I as soon as noticed him shake his head when he watched Patrick Kane stickhandle round an opponent on TV.

However he by no means anointed different gamers, even when he would marvel.

With McDavid, stylistically, Crosby noticed himself. And he noticed expertise that was out of this world.

Crosby didn’t really feel threatened. He understood that another person all the time comes alongside.

I think about Wayne Gretzky felt the identical when he traveled to Laval, Quebec, to see Mario Lemieux play a junior recreation in 1984. Lemieux, understanding Gretzky was within the constructing, scored 4 targets within the first interval. At that very second, months earlier than even profitable the Stanley Cup for the primary time, Gretzky knew the identification of his successor.

Through the 2012 lockout, McDavid couldn’t have recognized that Crosby was watching him from afar, however he was. There may be an understanding, I feel, between the all-time greats. They acknowledge traits that solely they will acknowledge as a result of solely they will perceive the genius required to be traditionally good.

We’re seeing McDavid take the Stanley Cup playoffs by storm, changing into the primary participant in historical past to submit consecutive four-point video games within the Stanley Cup Ultimate. It’s outstanding. It’s nice for the sport. A celebrity is the focus in his very prime, which the NHL badly wants.

A lot of Crosby’s prime was robbed by the concussion and the lockout. However his hockey sense and imaginative and prescient have been spot on, even when he wasn’t on the ice that autumn.

He all the time knew McDavid was the successor, that he performed the identical method, that maybe his bodily items even exceeded his personal.

He was proper. McDavid is in a category with Gretzky, Lemieux, Crosby and Bobby Orr. And now, we wait to see if McDavid can pull off this seismic comeback and win a championship.

Crosby certainly shall be watching. He all the time has been.

(Photograph: Codie McLachlan / Getty Pictures)